This conversation is presented by the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles

Saturday, July 27, 2024

10 a.m. Los Angeles / 8 p.m. Greece

Via Zoom

Click here to RSVP

Led by Professor Sharon Gerstel, Director of the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture, and the Honorable Christina Valassopoulou, Consul General of Greece in Los Angeles, this academic year’s book club will feature Greek books in translation. For future book selections and meeting dates, click here. 

Following the screening of The Murderess (Η Φόνισσα) at the 18^th Los Angeles Greek Film Festival in June, we take the opportunity to read and discuss the classic novel by acclaimed author Alexandros Papadiamantis. Our discussion of the novel will focus on the author’s representation of society on a remote Greek island. Participants are encouraged to read the novel in Greek or English.

From the publisher: The Murderess (Η Φόνισσα) is a bone-chilling tale of crime and punishment with the dark beauty of a backwoods ballad. Set on the dirt-poor Aegean island of Skiathos, it is the story of Hadoula, an old woman living on the margins of society and at the outer limits of respectability. Hadoula knows about herbs and their hidden properties, and women come to her when they need help. She knows women’s secrets and she knows the misery of their lives, and as the book begins, she is trying to stop her new-born granddaughter from crying so that her daughter can at last get a little sleep. She rocks the baby and rocks her and then the terrible truth hits there’s nothing worse than being born a woman, and there’s something that she, Hadoula, can do about that.

The discussion will be held in English.

This program is held under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles and is made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

Links to purchase book, translated by Peter Levi:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Murderess-York-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590173503

Barnes and Noble: https://valsec.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-murderess-alexandros-papadiamantis/1002019107

Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/201495/the-murderess-by-alexandros-papadiamantis-translated-from-the-greek-by-peter-levi/